Abortion and subsequent premature birth: A well-documented but untold link

Most Pro-Lifers have heard of the well-documented link between abortion and breast cancer– studies overwhelmingly affirm that women who undergo abortions are over 500% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not. But what about the link between abortion and preterm birth? With at least 137 studies, including several notable meta-analyses backing the link between abortion and preterm birth – with no meta-analyses indicating the contrary – the link is “settled science,” according to neonatologist Dr. Martin McCaffrey.

Dr. McCaffrey is the Director of the Perinatal Quality Collaborative at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he works to improve outcomes for babies born too early. “If we are serious about reducing infant mortality and the toll preterm birth takes…,” he said, “we must educate about the abortion-preterm birth link.” Texas medical professionals, mark your calendars: Dr. McCaffrey will be in Houston next February to deliver a talk entitled “The Burden of Abortion and the Preterm Birth Crisis” at the Matthew Bulfin Educational Conference.

Although evidence indicating the link between abortion and preterm birth “dwarfs” the evidence supporting the link between smoking and preterm birth, we all know that warnings cautioning against smoking during pregnancy are omnipresent. Yet, on the other hand, women seeking abortion are deprived of the most rudimentary information on the risk they face of delivering a child much too early subsequent to their abortion. And this risk skyrockets to 93% for women who have undergone multiple abortions.

Those who trumpet the “every child a wanted child” soundbite in an attempt to lend credence to their support for the abortions of so-called “unwanted” children undermine their own message by failing to raise awareness of this link. Indeed, should not the abortion proponents who believe that women are entitled to healthy, wanted children at the time of their choosing be the foremost lobbyists to ensure that pre-abortive women are apprised of the potentiality that they will never be able to deliver a healthy, full-term child when they decide they want to do so? The failure to do this bespeaks the real abortion agenda, which has little to do with women’s rights or the health of women or their “wanted” children.

With the anti-Life community’s failure to ensure informed consent on the abortion-preterm birth link, Pro-Life advocates have accepted the thwarted responsibility. Last month, Secular Pro-Life launched a well-organized awareness campaign called Prevent Preterm. “Unfortunately, despite the strength of the research [proving the abortion-preterm birth link], it’s become hugely politicized,” said Secular Pro-Life president Kelsey Hazzard. She told Texas Right to Life: “I feel a responsibility, as a pro-life advocate for women and children, to educate as many people as possible about the abortion-preterm birth link.”